Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Merci, Monsieur President. Vive la France! I thank the senator for her question and for her interest in broadband policy. Countries all around the world recognise the economic importance of broadband infrastructure, but progress on delivering high-speed broadband is slow. It is slow in countries that are relying upon their incumbent telcos to deliver on these ambitions.

When Telstra had the monopoly on fixed-line infrastructure, they were slow to embrace broadband as well. Incumbent telcos favour fibre to the node—not because it is efficient or effective but because it is cheap and preserves their market power. Five years ago, Alcatel-Lucent published a technology white paper that compared the cost of building fibre to the node versus going all the way to the home. The member for Wentworth misuses this report and his discussions with BT to claim that his FTTN costs one-third of fibre to the home. That claim can be made only when an incumbent is building the node network. But that is not Mr Turnbull's plan.

Last night on Lateline, Mr Turnbull confirmed that he proposes that the government-owned NBN Co. will acquire the ageing, corroding copper network from Telstra with its $1 billion a year maintenance cost. They are going to buy back the copper! Mr Turnbull should stop misleading. (Time expired)